The bill: establishes the Office of the Small Business Commissioner; provides for the appointment, functions and powers of the commissioner; and includes an annual reporting requirement and a regulation making power.

in the event that the Snowy Hydro Company is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in relation to: limits on individual, corporate and foreign ownership; and corporate and operational provisions to be included in the company constitution.

to provide a discretion to extend the period in which sale proceeds from a pensioner’s principal home are not included in the assets test for pensioners whose new principal home construction has been unavoidably delayed.

to provide for: a $40 per week supplementary payment for single parents receiving Newstart payments; and the income test for single parents receiving Newstart to be the same as the income test for single parents receiving Parenting Payment;

Social Security (Administration) Act 1999

to provide for payments under this Act; and

Fair Work Act 2009

to provide for an enforceable right to request flexible working arrangements for people with caring responsibilities, including single parents.

In response to recommendations of the Review of Higher Education (the Bradley Review), the bill amends the:

Social Security Act 1991

to: phase-in a change to the age of independence from 25 to 22 years for the purposes of the independent youth allowance; provide that youth allowance claimants will not be able to attain independence through part-time employment or wages; increase the annual parental income threshold for non-independent youth allowance recipients; change the taper rate from 25 per cent per person to 20 per cent for families for the parental income reduction for youth allowance; increase and index to the Consumer Price Index the personal income free area for youth allowance, austudy students and Australian Apprentices; and provide the training supplement to all parenting payment recipients who are subject to participation requirements; and

Social Security Act 1991

,

Higher Education Support Act 2003

,

Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004

,

Social Security (Administration) Act 1999

and

Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986

to: provide for a start-up scholarship and a relocation scholarship (both to be indexed from 2011); and exempt (to an indexed threshold) merit and equity based scholarships from the income test under social security and veterans’ entitlements legislation.